Footballking16

There's absolutely zero way that any playoff qualification method or rating system would be based solely on W-L record. It would be a combination of multiple factors including SoS, opponents W-L record, opponent SoS, etc. I'd have a hard time believing that even a winless Luers team that played a bunch of 4A and 5A schools competitive week in and week out wouldn't still be a top half rated 2A team.

How is letting a 9-0 team play a team that's 0-9 whom they already beat by 70 points earlier in the year exactly improving the tournament? You want to improve the tournament? Force teams to qualify and seed accordingly.

An 8-1 team should NEVER be playing a 9-0 team in the first round the same way an 0-9 team has no business being in a playoff to begin with. A playoff qualification format (with subsequent seeding) solves both those issues. I don't see what the problem is?

Because at what point does it become practical to let the IHSAA allow unnecessary 60-70 point blowouts in a "postseason" game? There's 48 sectionals in this state. If you pitted 1 vs 8 and 2 vs 7 in all sectionals in classes 1A-4A, you would be looking at colossal blowouts with running clocks at half time in just about every one of those games. What purpose does that serve anyone. Why not just cut the field in half at the end of the regular season and let 1 play 4 and 2 play 3 in more competitive sectional format. I mean yes, you are theoretically correct, you could do seeding and not go to a qualification format...but at the expense of what? This is the reason the IHSAA hasn't, and won't go to seeding, to try and avoid as many blowouts as possible with a "blind draw" as justification.

The unintended consequences of seeding would make the first round of the playoffs redundant to the point where the next logical step is a qualifier. The IHSAA doesn't want that. If the sectionals were seeded appropriately, 85-90% of the opening round games statewide would result in 50-60 point blowouts. That is the definition of redundant. It's unnecessary and doesn't do anybody any good. The only way the IHSAA today can justify why a team that has gone 0-9 in the regular season surrendering 500+ points is allowed to play again is because of the all-in, blind draw. There's an off-chance that an 0-9 team meets another 0-9 team and a blowout is avoided. If you seeded the sectionals, the next and only logical move would be to eliminate the field in half after the end of the regular season. The IHSAA isn't ready for that.

LN is going to have to hit a couple home runs early or else this will get ugly. CG will assert their will on the ground.

It's a good showcase no doubt, but Center Grove will score every time they have the ball until their starters come out. LN doesn't have the line depth on either side of the ball to contain, let alone stop Center Grove. This will be a 42/35-7 type game at half with a running clock that shortly follows.

Who cares? Cathedral is an exponentially better football team than Lawrence North this year. And you saw first hand last week that # of D1 athletes (Merrillville) doesn't mean much. Cathedral starts more juniors than seniors and by the time it's all said and done you'll see a Cathedral team next Friday that sends 5-6 kids D1 by the time they graduate.

You've already cemented this Center Grove team as the best team in the history of Indiana. With 6A being as down as it is, Center Grove should be able to walk to a 6A title, injuries or not. The only way this Center Grove team goes down as one of the best of all-time is to finish with a high national ranking, and the only way that happens is if they beat Cathedral, who is also nationally ranked. Center Grove will have a MIC title secured by the time the Cathedral game kicks off, so that point is irrelevant and Center Grove can still win a state title even if they lose to Cathedral. The only way this Center Grove team goes down as one of the best teams in the "History of Indiana" (as you have proclaimed) is by beating Cathedral. There isn't a chance in hell either coach steps off the accelerator in this game for that reason. Winner of this game goes down as the best team in the state of Indiana this year as both teams are winning their respective class titles this year.

Everyone is banged up in week 9, that's the nature of the sport. I will bet our posting privileges that there isn't a single starter on either team that sits this game (unless already previously injured) next week. This series has seen everything from shootouts to defensive slug fests to OT thrillers. Far from unmemorable.

You must have missed the last 6 Cathedral-Center Grove games. Nothing window dressing about any of the prior meetings.

L O L Center Grove will have the MIC title locked up somewhere around the middle of the 2nd quarter and will be playing reserves most the 2nd half in anticipation for next weeks game. Center Grove will have a top 10 national finish on the line next week. Nothing "scrimmage" about next week.

Game of the year.....until next week right? Lawrence North has some phenomenal individual talent, namely McCulley and Cooper, but this game will be competitive for a quarter.

Hope for an injury free game and the 2's and 3's to get lots of reps.

Huh? Where did I say I didn’t support seeding? Anything that prevents two undefeated teams playing in round 1 on one half the bracket while two winless teams play on the other side of the bracket is better than the status quo. That’s pretty much a given and should be noted as common sense. But seeding is ultimately the by-product of a qualification-based system. But the all-in, blind draw is the IHSAA’s justification for unnecessary blowouts in the early round of sectional’s. The IHSAA has built this narrative that with an all-in, blind draw format that it’s a new season for everyone where anything can happen due the unique “randomness” of the format. It’s a complete farce. Seeding eliminates that false narrative the IHSAA has been pushing for decades and reveals that in fact the tournament isn’t random and upsets really don’t occur. Once that narrative has been re-established due to seeding, the need to include winless teams in a postseason goes out the window.

I know what it means. And yes I know he wasn’t actually comparing genocide to the disappearance of a once very populated forum. But it’s in poor taste.

Ethnic cleansing? Yikes

I don't think it's difficult at all. I just don't think the IHSAA wants to have to answer as to why it's practical to continually allow 50-60 point blowouts statewide year in and year out at the first and second round level of the playoffs. Seeding the sectionals would be the tipping point to a qualification-based system. As it stands now, 50-60 point blowouts can be justified by the "randomness" of the draw.

I've been on record here for multiple years saying regular season games would have tons more meaning in a qualification-based system. And yes, first round sectional games pitted between two teams that are 9-0 and 0-9 are unnecessary.

Two different animals though. Wrestling matches take all of 5-10 minutes tops and don't receive near the notoriety of a football game. An overmatched wrestler getting pinned within 10 seconds doesn't quite have the same connotation of an overmatched football team getting beat 70-0. As a qualifier supporter myself, I do think seeding is what is holding Indiana back from a qualification-based playoff. Seeding would lead to widespread, unnecessary blowouts the first two weeks of sectionals to the point where only a qualification-based system makes sense.

Small school coaches/AD's had no problem raising hell about class basketball....The IHSAA isn't going to act on anything unless it receives a ton of backlash from coaches or representatives from member schools. The IHSAA exists to mediate, not dictate. I'm guessing the Spegal transfer wasn't met with much scorn.

How many coaches in the HHC vetoed or petitioned the IHSAA to not sign off on Spegal's immediate eligibility? The fact that Delta, the school he transferred from, signed off on his transfer all but ensured the IHSAA wasn't going to get involved. The IHSAA exists to play mediator when needed. This clearly wasn't an issue that needed addressed.

We know...

Your criteria? Lol

Cathedral sweeps the GCL South with a dominating 36-14 win. Elder had less than 150 yards of total offense.